3 Marketing Hacks #EventProfs Should Learn From Startups

What keeps event planners up at night? In most cases it’s the fear of not bringing in enough attendees to their event.

Letting people know about your events via traditional marketing channels is however getting more and more difficult. And therefore many event planners are looking for alternative marketing means or hacks for increasing attendance at their events.

And that’s where growth-hacking comes in… the buzzword with the capital B in the startup community.

As the NextWeb article explains, growth-hacking is a marketing technique that focuses on innovative alternatives to traditional marketing. It’s particularly important for startups that focus on “growth first, budget second.”

Let’s be honest, there are a very few event planners that can enjoy the luxury of unlimited budgets to market their events. And that’s where these low cost growth-hacking tips can come in handy.

No matter if you organise a local tech meet-up or a two-day conference.

Here are 3 growth-hacks that you can learn from fighting startups.

1. Do event evangelism

Evangelism marketing is basically an advanced form of word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) in which companies turn their customers and employees into enthusiasts who spread a word about the product that they believe in.

While many marketers may turn up their nose against WOMM as something outdated and impossible to measure, it is the most trust worthy marketing channel out there.

According toNielsen research, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from their friends and family members above all other forms of advertising.

So how can you recruit your own group of evangelists?

Turn your attendees into evangelists

Event planning is by default all about bringing people together. This is an incredible asset that most of planners unfortunately ignore as a marketing channel. In fact, a happy attendee is your best evangelist.

And now imagine, you organise a conference of 200 people where each one of the delegates can be turned into an evangelist.
If you think about it, many participants actually become evangelists on their own…

They live-tweet, share their pictures on Facebook and talk about their live experiences with their friends.

There are however steps to increase chances of turning your attendees into evangelists:

– Research your delegates and make the event about them
– Focus on creating memorable experiences
– Make sure to provide them with communication channels so they can spread a word
– Encourage live-tweeting and WOMM with giving out incentives
– Offer a 1+1 tickets with lower price so they can bring their friends

When it comes to live events, there is this social phenomenon – FOMO, the fear of missing out – that naturally helps evangelising your events.

The recent Evenbrite research indicates that 7 out of 10 people suffer from FOMO when they see social posts of their friends from the live event. This phobia propels them to show up, engage and share with their circles.

To learn more about leveraging FOMO and integrating social media into your events, take a look at this article.

Get your colleagues on board too

The same goes for your partners with whom you work on the event. By encouraging them to develop their own personal brands on social media and start blogging, you can multiply the evangelising effect multiple folds.

2. Start a brand community around your event

Brand communities have been popular and highly researched among academics for last two decades. Not only are they an appealing research subject, they are an incredibly effective business strategy that among many other brands saved Harley Davidson from extinction.

Brand community is a community formed on the basis of an emotional attachment to the product or a brand. It’s specific for creating the connection between individuals, brand and its culture.

Practically every major super-brand succeeded in creating a massive cult-like following that has helped them grow their business:

7- Successful communities don’t necessarily need to be controlled. The power is in the hands of members.

Successful event communities

In the context of events and meetings, TED is a shining example of getting the event brand community right. They give their enthusiasts the TEDx platform so they can organise local events, bring in local speakers and inspire the local community.

Not only do these TED’s activities support their overall vision to share the ideas worth spreading, they also form a strong cult-following around their global brand. It’s not necessary to say that when the official TED comes, the tickets are instantly sold out.

Another fantastic example is the Pioneers festival that strategically unites startupers and entrepreneurs. Similarly to TED, they work with their multi-national community throughout the year by organising Pioneers pitching competitions with local tech startups across European countries.

3. Write, share, repeat

While this marketing technique is getting more mainstream and many might not consider it growth-hacking any longer, it’s still the most effective way to raise brand awareness, create a group of loyal readers/viewers/followers and ultimately convert them into buying customers.

Event marketers can implement content marketing throughout the entire life cycle. However, I dare to say that it’s most effective prior and after the event. The onsite event marketing is dominated by live-tweeting.